Wii U sells 40K units in UK on opening weekend

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Reports today say Nintendo sold 40,000 Wii U consoles in its opening weekend in the UK. The innovative new machine was launched on Friday 30 November and the initial sales figures effectively mean that it completely sold out on the high street in just 48 hours.

Without comparable figures to hand, we can't say whether Nintendo has had a better or worse opening weekend than Microsoft with its Xbox 360, but it is understood that 165,000 PlayStation 3s were sold in an equivalent period in 2007. However, there was a greater level of stock supplied by Sony from day one, with 220,000 units available, and it is believed that Nintendo would have sold much higher quantities itself had more consoles been shipped.

Nintendo is releasing more units to the high street before Christmas, but you may have to wait until the new year before larger quantities hit the shelves.

Games industry trade magazine MCV also saids that the software attachment rate for the first 48 hours has been 2:1. That means two games have been sold for every console bought. These figures do not include digital downloads, available through Nintendo's online store.